Why do #fish swim in #schools? A🧵and new hypothesis. Schooling could help fish avoid predators, navigate, communicate, find mates and food, and save energy. Here we propose and test a new hypothesis:

@Dr_Yannis yes indeed!

And the @nytimes has a nice summary of our work here written by @jack_tamisiea

What is the significance of the tremendous diversity of #shark skin #denticles? Presenting our experimental approach to understanding this at the Atlanta #SICB2025 meetings. Come to the session for all things shark skin!

@garethjfraser @NSF @WHOI @MCZHarvard @Ella_Nicklin @aquatic_isa @gigimitchell28 @MarBioMoll @elizabethsibert @UF_CLAS Happy to host such a great meeting @harvard and then to have a second day @WHOI in the lab of @elizabethsibert. So many #shark #denticles, so little time!

@ronshnapp @LilianLieber No, but we are working on that now!

Overall this supports the new “turbulence sheltering hypothesis” for why fish might group together, especially during active migratory movements where water flow is chaotic and turbulent: fish in a school can save a considerable amount of energy compared to swimming alone.

@TheYangfanZHANG led the project with @mcalicc7, @HungtangK, and Prof. Rui Ni @JohnsHopkins to test this hypothesis, comparing individuals swimming alone to energy use by small schools swimming in turbulent conditions: paper at

@HermanPontzer Hi Herman! Yes, fish do typically spend most of their time at speeds very near the low COT, and migratory species tend to move at this speed too.

There are a wide variety of hydrodynamic mechanisms that allow energy savings as fish swim near each other and in each others wake, and fish in schools are changing relative positions dynamically through time.